Thursday Night Football was a rollercoaster of emotions for the Minnesota Vikings and there was a lot to learn against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 14.
A short week didn’t give the Minnesota Vikings a lot of time to dwell on their disappointing loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday. With the Pittsburgh Steelers coming to town, the focus had to shift quickly to Thursday’s matchup.
Even though this wasn’t technically a must-win game for the purple and gold, a loss would have been extremely crushing to any hopes of making the postseason. Interestingly, the Steelers were in a similar situation, hoping to close in on a Wild Card spot.
Minnesota won by a final score of 36-28, but the game wasn’t without the drama and action that fans have come to expect from the Vikings. The win moved them to 6-7 on the season and a chance to reach .500 on the season if they can beat the Bears in Chicago in Week 15.
Before looking too far ahead at the upcoming game, let’s take a look at some of the biggest takeaways from Minnesota’s Week 14 win over Pittsburgh on Thursday Night Football.
Dalvin Cook carried the ball and the Minnesota Vikings
It was surprising that Dalvin Cook was able to suit up for this game in the first place. However, he did more than just play against the Steelers, he showed speed, elusiveness, and power to carry the ball down the field.
Cook ended the day with 205 yards 27 carries and two touchdowns on the day. He ad a big 30 yard round that left defenders in the dust while sprinting through huge gaps provided by his blockers.
One interesting change for this game was putting offensive lineman Blake Brandel in as a blocker to eat up an extra defender. This is because blocking tight end Ben Ellefson is on injured reserve and the Vikings wanted to try something new.
Pittsburgh had no answer for this blocking scheme while a focused Dalvin Cook made great cuts and showcased his speed and agility. Considering he did all this with two injured shoulders after only missing one game, it’s mind-blowing he was as good as he was.
Once again, the Vikings couldn’t play a complete game
The Minnesota Vikings absolutely dominated the first half of play. They rattled off 23 points in the first half and kept the Steelers from scoring a single point in that time span. Both teams missed a field goal and the Vikings missed an extra point, but after that, the kicking game got back on point.
When the third quarter came around, the feel of the game shifted. Minnesota no longer looked like the determined team that was stopping everything Pittsburgh was doing and the offense slowed to a grinding halt. Pittsburgh got their first touchdown in the third while the Vikings settled for two field goals.
The fourth quarter is where things got extra ugly. The Steelers scored three touchdowns in the final quarter of play and nearly got their fourth as the clock expired. If not for Harrison Smith knocking the ball out of the hands of Pat Freiermuth, Pittsburgh would have been a two-point conversion away from sending this game to overtime.
The pass rush got to Big Ben in a big way
Ben Roethlisberger is going to be sore tomorrow. Minnesota’s pursuit of the Pittsburgh quarterback was relentless throughout the entire game, making Big Ben uncomfortable and knocking him to the ground on several occasions.
The Vikings had seven hits on Roethlisberger, sacking him five times for a loss of 39 yards. Several players for Minnesota got in on the sacks, with Eric Kendricks, Harrison Smith, Sheldon Richardson, Michael Pierce, and Armon Watts each getting credited for a quarterback takedown.
Entering this game, the Steelers led the NFL in sacks with 37. They were unable to register a single sack on Kirk Cousins during the Thursday Night Football game, leaving their total at 37 heading into next week.
On the other hand, the Minnesota Vikings added five sacks to their previous total of 36, bringing them to 41 and making them the new leaders in the NFL. The Bears are in third place in this category with 33, and Minnesota will face off against them twice in the final four weeks.
The corners struggled mightily
Pittsburgh has some talented receivers on their team as well as a quarterback who has won two Super Bowls and has been named to the Pro Bowl six times in his career. Even if they are struggling as a unit, they have the potential to be dangerous.
Minnesota’s secondary struggled a lot against the Steelers’ receivers. Big Ben threw the ball 40 times and completed 28 of those for 308 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception with a majority of the damage coming in the second half.
Once Ben started testing Bashaud Breeland, Cameron Dantzler, and Kris Boyd, good things started happening for the Steelers. Penalties, mistakes, and loose coverage let Pittsburgh find a rhythm and nearly bring them back into the game.
Even Patrick Peterson missed a tackle in the final minutes that could have ended the game, so it’s not just the three listed that were making mistakes. Three receivers had over 60 yards on the day for the Steelers, since he wasn’t dialed in on one receiver like Kirk Cousins was with his 15 targets for Justin Jefferson.
Minnesota struggled to pass the football
There were a few times when Kirk Cousins threw a beautiful deep ball to a receiver that had a great chance of being reeled in. Otherwise, Minnesota’s quarterback didn’t look like his usual self at all on Thursday night.
For Cousins, completing only 14 of his 31 throws is a poor ratio. When you add in that he recorded two interceptions on the day, it gets worse. Sure, one of those picks was a tipped pass and the other was when pressure was in his face, but those turnovers hurt.
If you subtract the 62-yard play where K.J. Osborn may or may not have pushed off to get open, the numbers get even uglier. Thankfully, on a day when 21 penalties were accepted against both teams for a total of 187 yards, that wasn’t called back.
The Vikings can’t rely on Dalvin Cook to carry this team. Kirk Cousins needs to play as close to mistake-free football as possible while making smart decisions to move the chins and eat the clock. He may miss Adam Thielen in the red zone, but he needs to make sure he can keep Minnesota in games. Plus, targeting Justin Jefferson on 15 of those pass attempts while he caught only seven of them was not efficient.
The next four weeks are more important than ever
The Pittsburgh Steelers were the last AFC team on the schedule for the Minnesota Vikings this year. For their final four games, they will travel to Chicago, host the Rams, travel to Green Bay, then host the Bears.
Three division games might not matter since catching the Packers in the NFC North will be a huge challenge. But the fact they are conference games would mean quite a bit when it comes to tiebreakers for the playoffs.
The biggest game on the list will be the Rams at U.S. Bank Stadium in Week 16. The Rams are 8-4 and currently sit in one of the Wild Card spots. A win over them would give Minnesota the head-to-head tiebreaker in case they end the season with an identical record.
Minnesota will have some extra time to heal up and prepare before the game in Chicago on Sunday, Dec. 19. Hopefully, they can make the most of this time and come out with a great game plan to beat the Bears and get positive momentum going for the final quarter of the season.
What did you learn from the Week 14 game between the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers? And what made you the happiest or saddest from the Thursday Night Football game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.